'Best Tuners For Baritone?...
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Cagey
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Always put in five springs if you have them. I don't know where the practice of only installing three came from or when it started, but it's gotten so prevalent that many bridges only come with three springs now, even though they're all designed to have five. Except, of course, the cruel jokes Leo intended for Jaguars/Jazzmasters and a couple of the old Gibson designs. And Bigsbys.
Shorting the spring count makes the bridge less repeatable and more susceptible to sharping from resting a palm on it. Although, to be fair, you will have to work a little harder to yank the thing around. Still... man up. It's worth it. Five spring's pull averages out better and you'll return to neutral more reliably without goofing around. Staying in tune is a Good Thing. They'd sell a helluva lot less Trem-Loks or Tremel-Nos if the bridges were set up the way they were designed to be.
Shorting the spring count makes the bridge less repeatable and more susceptible to sharping from resting a palm on it. Although, to be fair, you will have to work a little harder to yank the thing around. Still... man up. It's worth it. Five spring's pull averages out better and you'll return to neutral more reliably without goofing around. Staying in tune is a Good Thing. They'd sell a helluva lot less Trem-Loks or Tremel-Nos if the bridges were set up the way they were designed to be.
Jumble Jumble
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When you put a palm on the bridge and the strings go sharp, you're compressing the springs, or rather, helping them back to their original state. Adding more won't help with that - if anything, the opposite. Strats were indeed originally fitted with five springs but IIRC the bridge wasn't floating either.
Cagey
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It's a balance thing - the springs and strings have to be pulling equally in order for the bridge to remain static. So, perhaps it's my imagination, but I've just found that fully populating the spring cavity results in a more stable bridge. I suspect neither the springs nor strings have a flat response curve to them, so how far either is stretched changes how much resistance they have to further stretching.
I've built a test fixture and have 5 or 6 sets of springs from various sources that I intend to graph out the response to one of these days. It'll be interesting to see how they behave. I started doing it at one point, but it was incredibly tedious and time-consuming and other stuff kept pulling me away from it.
I've built a test fixture and have 5 or 6 sets of springs from various sources that I intend to graph out the response to one of these days. It'll be interesting to see how they behave. I started doing it at one point, but it was incredibly tedious and time-consuming and other stuff kept pulling me away from it.
SustainerPlayer
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Cagey said:
Not really. A lot of the string pull is put into the studs. I saw some calculations once somewhere. As I recall it was some thing like a 5:1 ratio.
If the springs were to pull a full 50 kg or so for a standard string set operating a vibrator would very muscle demanding.
Cagey
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The studs are just a fulcrum point. They don't contribute any energy to the equation. But, you're right in that there is a ratio of tension required at the wang bar vs. the static pressure on the studs. Otherwise it would be as you say - you'd need to be He-Man the Barbarian to operate the thing.
Experimental_Insanity
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Right on, thank each and everyone of you for your advice. Going to get more springs. New to using baritone strings and setting it up for this. :dontknow: Usually just used 11 or 12 gauge strings in C or B. Yep, seems even after putting the 3rd back in it is STILL high. :tard: Again cannot thank you enough for the help. 
ccasion14: What picks does everyone use for these most thick strings? Seems a Tortex .73 isn't so good for this all of a sudden.
ccasion14: What picks does everyone use for these most thick strings? Seems a Tortex .73 isn't so good for this all of a sudden.
Cagey
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Experimental_Insanity said:Right on, thank each and everyone of you for your advice. Going to get more springs. New to using baritone strings and setting it up for this. :dontknow: Usually just used 11 or 12 gauge strings in C or B. Yep, seems even after putting the 3rd back in it is STILL high. :tard: Again cannot thank you enough for the help.
If you don't have any more springs to add, you can always just tighten the claw the springs are attached to a little more. As I mentioned earlier, it's a balancing act. If the strings are pulling the bridge up, tightening the springs will pull the bridge back down. You'll need to relax the strings a bit.
As for picks, I don't know what people use and I've only played a baritone briefly recently. I'd think you'd want to be up in the 1mm range, but thickness and material both affect the sound so maybe you could work up a variety pack to help you decide. Some guys goof around for years before settling on a pick style/material/thickness and even then aren't married to anything in particular.
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